My S12 Nostalgia Project, 12 Years in the Making

Long-time member here, but I've been mostly inactive for the last 10 or so years.  And honestly, it's been devastating watching the decrease in forum activity over the years.  And not just here, but all automotive forums, slowly losing members to generic social media platforms.  Enough of my "back in my day!" complaints. 

Here's a quick synopsis on my history with the S12 and how I ended up here:

I was an S13 kid, before the drift "scene" drove prices up for junk cars.  I daily drove a couple of them back between 2006 and 2008.  They were good fun, and very inexpensive.  Somewhere in between S13s, a red '88 S12 popped up for sale on the forums.  It was a very nice 100k XE example, with a KA24E motor swap and a full SE body kit.  The for sale ad pic shown below..



I paid $1,500 for the car, which was the most I had paid for any S-chassis up until this point in time.  It was a blast and treated me well.  I threw some Sportmaxx ( :no: ) wheels on it that I had at the time, and thought it looked rad lol. 







However I missed the S13s.  At the time, there was pretty limited information for aftermarket suspension options for the S12, and BC & Megan hadn't started producing any "off the shelf" coilover packages.  I ended up parting with it for '90 hatch, and regretted it ever since.  This was probably the early part of 2008?  I still regularly reference this car, even 11 years later.

Fast forward to last Saturday (5/4/19).  I'm laying in bed, and a friend sends me a link to a car ad on FB market place, with the following pics..







After years of casual searching, a red '88 pops up, 15 minutes from my house.  2 hours after it was listed, it was on my trailer.



The short backstory on this car:
It's a 1988 SE, V6 & 5 speed, with 120k.  It had been living in the western part of CT for the last 10-15 years, being used for track days by an enthusiast out there.  There are some car club stickers on the thing, as well as a couple tech stickers as recently as 2013.  The car has lowering springs, adjustable shocks, steel braided brake lines, as well as polyurethane everywhere.  The car eventually suffered from some brake line and clutch line issues and was sold as a project to the guy I bought it from.  He basically sold it to me in the same state in which he had received it.  It runs, though needs a good tune up, and really just needs to be gone through.  And that's where we stand today.



The short term goal: Get the VG30 tuned up and running well enough to put some miles on it.  I've never driven a V6 S12, so I'm curious to see what I like and what I don't mainly to help me make decisions for the long term goal.  I've already replaced the damaged brake lines, missing brake caliper, and dead slave cylinder.  Just gotta bleed the thing now and make sure nothing is leaking.  It does have a pretty substantial coolant leak from the large hard pipe that runs to the lower rad outlet, but I have a box of new coolant hoses with the car, so I'm not too worried.  The power steering rack is leaking BAD and there's a good bind and click in the steering that seems to be coming from the steering shaft u-joint.  Again, little stuff that just needs to be gone through.

The long term goal: I would LOVE to do a simplistic VQ build.  It would make PLENTY of power, while remaining true to the "Nissan" and "V6" badging on the vehicle.  Though height packaging is a major concern (low oil pan, high intake manifold), but it just seems to be the right option.  Also considering some other naturally aspirated powerhouses like the K-series (though height is a obstacle there too), 3sge BEAMS, etc.  And paint, some mild interior work, and proper suspension.  Either way, this car is being put together to be a DRIVER.  I loved the way my first one drove, and I want to finish what I should have with the first one!

Sorry for the rambling, I'm just very excited about the buy!  I'm stoked to be back.

Nice little story, certain elements of which reflect my own S12 story.

Welcome back.

Cool!

Looks like a good project with some cool mods already there from what I can see. Its not easy finding vintage steel in the north east.

weitrhino on 01:51:54 PM / 10-May-19
Nice little story, certain elements of which reflect my own S12 story.

Welcome back.

JonB on 03:22:02 PM / 10-May-19
Cool!

Looks like a good project with some cool mods already there from what I can see. Its not easy finding vintage steel in the north east.

I had a quick detour from the project for a local drift event hosted by Lock City at Thompson Speedway here in CT.  Only the second time this year I've had the M3 out to an event.  Hoping to change that now that I've done a major suspension overhaul! 







Okay back to the S12 mess..
After weeks of searching, I was able to track down a reman rack.



I bought a set of S13 knuckles from a local drift buddy in my area, which was also sort of difficult to track down.



After much debate, I decided to go with Z32 brakes for my S13 knuckle conversion.  Go big or go home, right?



Though it's sort of going to be a shame to get rid of these nice new stock calipers.





And of course everything was seized because old Nissan.  But eventually it all came apart.  I took all the hardware and bracketry that came with the brakes and toss them in the tumbler for the day.







Excited to start putting all this stuff together.

I did the same thing; got the brakes in top order, then swapped them out for better stuff.

Its nice to see progress. Mine is just kept in running order until hopefully I get to upgrading it.

Finally got around to painting the Z32 calipers.  Ideally, I'd like to split them to have them powdercoated and do a full rebuild, but I'm trying to pick my battles with where I put my time and money.
And there was no fluid seepage from around the pistons, so I decided to just wire brush and respray for now.  I plan to do a full rebuild and coat them professionally at some point down the road.



It may be cliche, but I felt obligated to file the NISSAN logo lol.





I highly recommend tumblers for projects like this.  This is after about 6 hours in my Harbor Freight special.  I wish the pictures did it justice.







And my OZ Fittipaldis I've been [very slowly] rebuilding for the M3.  Though I debated for a second about throwing them on the S12 when it's done...  But 17x8.5/10.5" might be a little much on such a small platform.



Just got word yesterday that my Ichiba front hubs will be delivered today for the S13 knuckles, in order to keep the car 5 lug like it's supposed to be.  Also, my build-to-order BC coilovers are scheduled to ship out a week from today!  So hopefully within the next two weeks I can have this thing sitting on the ground.  But I have to track down wheels that will clear these brakes first  :nerdyembarassed:, something I totally forgot about.

I spent some time ripping the whole front suspension off of the car yesterday.



Started disassembling the control arms for new bushings, s13 ball joints, and some paint.









The first real hiccup I've had thus far is that RockAuto sent me two different inner tie rods when I ordered a pair of S13 items.  First glance they looked the same, but one obviously didn't thread into my new rack...  I'll have to take that up with them on Tuesday since it's a holiday weekend.



I've gotten so lucky that the PO included this huge box of new poly bushings.  Everything I've wanted to rebush so far has been included in this giant box of goodies lol.

Quick update:

I've been mostly sitting ducks here waiting for my coilovers to get here (scheduled to arrive tomorrow!)  I decided against replacing the rotors and brake hoses for now.  The rotors appear to have almost no miles on them, they just sat at the bottom of the ocean, seemingly.  The steel parts of the brake hoses were also pretty crusty but oddly enough the rubber isn't cracked with dry not or anything, so I'll use them for the time being.  Again, at this point getting the thing on the ground and running is the priority.  I hate to dump big bucks on things for a car that might not even function lol.







Took advantage of some down time and threw a new Z32 brake master and S12 clutch master in the car.  The Z32 master because I now need to move 10 pistons worth of brakes instead of the factory 4, lol, and the new clutch master because I realized when trying to bleed the new clutch slave that the old master was dumping fluid into the carpet.  That's what you get when you let cars sit for years!  Those rubber seals just disintegrate.







I made the stupid decision of insisting I only needed bare knuckles for my S13 front conversion, forgetting about things like the fancy washer, hub nut, and bearing cap.  Unfortunately, these items are about $50 new OEM.  Oh well.  Live and learn!



I finally threw the new Ichiba hubs on, now that the hardware was here.  These went on like butter.  Torqued to 80ft/lbs, which is apparently the factory torque spec.  Though that seemed suspiciously low...  Can anyone confirm this? 



New steering rack is now in, and with nice poly bushings this time around.



At this point, I started realizing that the stock wheels won't clear the brakes.  F.  What can I find that'll clear these brakes that's halfway presentable and cheap cheap...



This is what $160 gets you in a pinch, lol.  This car will get Super Advans once the right set pops up.  But for now, these will work.  Total coincidence that these are split-threes like the Super Advans are too.  It was a sign, right?

Well that is interesting. Youve been quite busy.

The z32 rear calipers are 2 piston. Not sure if thats a problem.

The mustang wheels are cool and different, maybe loose the center cap with the horse?

I suppose it would be fairly easy to fill the horse with bondo and repaint.  Might even be able to press a Nissan emblem into the bondo before it sets.

I made some good progress over the weekend.  Though had some frustrating snags.



Pulled some tires down from the attic and had those mounted up quick.



These FINALLY showed up after a month of waiting.





Here's what makes these really nice.  As most of you know, the IRS S12 has an odd hump on the rear trailing arm to hold the ID of the spring.  In most cars, this protrusion is round.  On the S12 it's a weird D shape.  BC makes a beautiful lower rubber/poly piece that perfectly fits snug onto that hump to hold the lower perch in place.  It's a great design.  I was skeptical about spending that kind of money on these coils, but the R&D alone is very impressive with how well thought-out everything is for such an uncommon vehicle.



Unfortunately, the Z32 calipers came with factory Z32 caliper bolts which are way too long to utilize with the S13 knuckles.  The S12 caliper bolts were the right length and thread pitch but the shank was slightly too large in diameter.  I threw them in the tumbler for a couple hours, and then chucked them into my drill press and filed the shank down to the perfect size.  This worked perfectly.



Unfortunately this is where it's gotta stop for the time being.  The wheels don't clear the brakes without spacers, so I have to order some 5mm spacers.  The lug studs are too short for the thickness of the pad on the Mustang wheels, especially if I'm going to be using spacers.  Also, when moving it out of the garage, the steering wheel had about 45* of play before the wheels turned.  It turns out, the rack bushings I used, which I believe were for a Z31 are too narrow to work on the S12 rack, so the entire rack was moving about half an inch in either direction.  Either way, I'm making progress!  Albeit slow progress.

I like the ingenuity on filing down those bolts. Keep it coming.

Well, turns out I used poly S13 steering rack bushings, not realizing that the steel strap/bracket that holds the driver side rack mount to the subframe is substantially thinner on the S12 than an S13, allowing the rack to move at least 1/4" in each direction.  The OEM S12 driver side bushing is NLA every where I looked, so I ended up buying Z31 bushings that are for a 3/4" bracket, as opposed to the 15/16" bracket.  The bushing is noticeably different.  Hoping to throw this in tonight and resolve the issue. 



My extended studs should also be here in the next couple days.  So very soon this thing should at least be a proper rolling chassis.  Then on to making it run properly!

It's beer season here in New England.  Cheers fam.

Unfortunately, progress has been rather slow.  A few friends and I decided to take a trip out to CO to watch the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which was quite the experience.  There's a whole lot they don't tell you about trying to attend these events lol.







The views were incredible.  And we did get to watch Dai grenade his transmission right in front of us at Devil's Playground.



So back to the limited progress:



Decided to get the front extended studs pressed.  For anyone who's wondering, Ichiba S13 5-lug conversion hubs use S14 14.25 knurl lug studs, NOT S13 ones.







I also did one of the rears, but this was way more involved and of course I didn't take pictures.  I used a small 1" hole saw to cut a hole in the brake dust shield from the back side and used that to remove the old studs and insert the new ones.  It really is a pain in the balls to pull the new studs in with nuts, but it's kind of my only option unless I want to take the entire rear hub assemblies apart, which I'd really rather not do.

After some suspension tweaking and doing the extended studs on that last corner, this thing should be a proper roller.  Now I just have to address the engine issues....  I'll get into that next time.

Love the progress and the race.  My son went this year with a friend but I ended up working that entire weekend.  If you're ever back in CO shoot me a PM.

iceageg on 11:22:27 AM / 03-Jul-19
Love the progress and the race.  My son went this year with a friend but I ended up working that entire weekend.  If you're ever back in CO shoot me a PM.

Wow I've been horrible with updates this summer.  Here's the sparknotes:

I was able to get the car fully assembled.  The car has been running intermittently since I bought it though I was having a hard time diagnosing why.  While the car was running I did take it for a drive around the block, only to find out my reman steering rack leaked horrifically.  O'Reilly sent me a new one overnight at no charge, which was nice.  However by the time this rack was installed in the car, the car wouldn't run at all anymore.  I spent some time traveling over the summer and kind of let this fall to the back-burner.  A couple weeks back a friend came by and gave me a hand and we spent probably 6 hours in the engine bay checking everything.  We eventually narrowed this down to a faulty crank position sensor.  By some weird series of events, I had a spare in a crate upstairs from my S13 days.  This fixed the intermittent running issue, and I've since put about 300 miles on the car.

Since this point in time I've spent some time trying to diagnose a misfire at idle and on light throttle.  I've also spent a lot of time making small upgrades and just taking the time to clean the car up.  I'm really happy with how it's coming along.  What's crazy is every time I drive this thing it feels a little bit better.  Sitting for a few years really does some odd stuff to these old cars.  Gotta spend some time shaking off the dust to get all the components working properly again.

A couple quick pics from my vacation with the pup









And back to car stuff:







The horrible red lights that the PO installed everywhere..



The white LED improvement:







This glorious $90 MOMO that I love dearly















Now that the car actually ran and was road-worthy, it was time to throw a halfway decent SPAL fan on here to keep it cool for traffic use.



And then came more diagnosing of the misfire/hesitation..









And the never-ending clean-up project..













And the front main seal, that has started throwing oil pretty substantially...  As much as I want to put this off, I may actually have to address it sooner rather than later..

Cool on the vaca. Maine in a vanagan.

Keep up the good work on the S12. Theyre getting quite rare

Hey guys, I have a little update I wanted to share.  I've been complaining on and off since I got this thing on the road about its erratic misfire at idle.  I knew that the front main seal was leaking pretty badly and I would have to pull the front of the motor apart, so I planned to replace the timing belt at the same time.  Sure enough, not only was the timing belt soaked in oil, it was also off 2 teeth  :woow:.  So I guess that explains why it ran kind of funky, lol.  Anyways, the VG motor now has a new timing belt, tensioner, and front main seal.  It is running SUBSTANTIALLY better now, and the misfire at idle is basically gone.  It also goes through its high-rpm warm up cycle normally now, and finds its happy warm idle at 800 rpm without skipping a beat.  It's a nice treat to have this thing running properly for once.

Since this point in time, I've put some good miles on the car!  I'm at about 1,500 miles on it since getting it on the road, which is quite a lot for me.  95% of my driving is work-related, and I have a company vehicle, so it isn't always that easy to find an excuse to put miles on a "fun car".





The rear coilovers have been bottomed out so I bought them, yet I still had wheel gap even with the 17s.  I threw in a shorter set of springs from an old set of BMW coilovers I had kicking around, which helped the right height dramatically (seen in the pic below), but the spring rate was brutally stiff.



At this point I bit the bullet and ordered a set of Swift springs, 5" tall 8KG to be exact.



This gave me the ride height I was looking for, though the perches were not bottoming out on the body under heavy compression.  Some trimming and tweaking the height and I almost have it perfect.  Here's how the springs looked all the way down  :shifty:.



I tweaked those a bit and took the car for a long drive all around the state, which was good fun.





So, a bit of more substantial news...  I pulled the trigger on an engine.  Despite getting it running properly, I really felt like it was lacking a more precise powerplant.  And I had never intended to keep the VG in here long-term.  I tossed around quite a few drivetrain ideas, bearing in mind the dimensional limitations of the S12 chassis in regards to sump location, engine bay height, the shallow trans tunnel, etc.  I ended up settling on a Gen 5 3SGE BEAMS engine, with the factory J160 6-speed trans.  For those that don't know, this is the 2.0 liter final version of the 3SGE engine, found in the JDM market Toyota Altezza.  It produces 207hp/170tq and revs to 8,000 rpm in factory form.  Dimensionally, it is a front sump motor, with a height identical to the VG that's already in the car.  The J160 is a rather narrow transmission, comparatively, and has several different shifter location options, which should help with the process.  The engine will be run on a full standalone ECU, to keep this simple.  I will be using blacktop 4age ITBs from an AE111, which when paired with the standalone computer should make for a very responsive, glorious sounding powerplant.  I'm extremely excited, though I'm expected mixed feedback lol.  I'm very aware it is a semi-popular swap into vintage Toyotas, including the AE86, but when it comes down to bang-for-your-buck, it's hard to overlook a complete 200+hp high revving drivetrain shipped to my door for under $1,500. 







The pup was extremely interested in the smell of the pallet.  I have no idea why lol.









Which brings me to today.  I'm currently realizing how shitty it is trying to find basic maintenance parts for an engine that we never got here in the states.  I just paid $360 for a timing belt and water pump kit for a 4 cylinder Toyota engine  :grumpy:, but hey, gotta pay to play, lol.  I'm going to keep driving the car until the weather gets a little shittier, before ripping it apart and beginning the fabrication process.

Love it. Are you going to be the first one to have that motor in an s12?

kelso840 on 10:41:07 AM / 28-Oct-19
Love it. Are you going to be the first one to have that motor in an s12?

I don't recall this swap into an S12.  With the standalone it should be fairly easy once the mounts are fabricated.  Ignore the hate that you anticipate.  Just don't butcher the V6 cross member if you can avoid it please.

iceageg on 07:45:48 AM / 29-Oct-19
I don't recall this swap into an S12.  With the standalone it should be fairly easy once the mounts are fabricated.  Ignore the hate that you anticipate.  Just don't butcher the V6 cross member if you can avoid it please.

mikey on 08:52:22 AM / 29-Oct-19
. . .
Tell ya what, ship me over a 4cyl cross member and I promise I won't hack up the V6 one :idea: :grinwink:

I tend to get consumed in these types of projects, and when I'm in my productive phases, I forget to document things as well as I probably should.  But here's what I've been up to over the past few months:


These goodies showed up, albeit looking like they were pulled from the titanic.  These are a set of factory Toyota ITBs from a 4AGE 20v Blacktop motor, which I believe was found in the JDM AE111s.  These are getting tougher (and more expensive) to come by these days.  They make an adapter plate to run these bodies on a 3SGE Beams motor, using almost all the factory Toyota components, which really rustles my jimmies.


At this point, I had to break these apart, as I only need the bodies and some of the linkage components.  The lower manifold, injectors, vacuum components, etc will not be used.




They do have to be modified to clear the BEAMS fuel rail.








Looking good!


This motor was a returnless system from the factory, utilizing an electronic regulator in the fuel tank to regulate the fuel pressure.  Since the Nissan uses a factory returned system, I decided to convert the engine to a returned fuel system as well.  Thankfully, Toyota put three ports on the fuel rail.  The top one is for the feed, and both ends have an M12 plug.  I ordered two M12 to -6AN fittings for each end of the rail, and used one of the stock Toyota plugs to block off the top port.  A very easy modification.  This is the kind of stuff that I like, lol.








Just some quick maintenance items.  Timing belt, water pump, front main, etc.  These items took over two months to get here, and to the tune of $400  :woow:


Now came the shitty part.  Test fitting to build the engine mounts.


I'm using a pair of BMW E36 Condor engine mounts.  For no reason other than that I like the design, and with one additional hole drilled in the engine mounts on the subframe, they bolt right up.  I also used a block of wood to ensure I would have enough clearance to get over the steering rack during test fitting, because this fitment was TIGHT.


And I still had to take a grinder to some of the casting marks/webbing on the aluminum oil pan to clear everything.








I wish I had more pictures of this process, but it was a pain in the balls lol.




Now because the J160 was used in several different vehicles, it was designed with a modular shifter.  This can be unbolted, and literally moved forward 3" with no new components whatsoever.  This allowed the shifter to end up almost dead on in the factory location.  I was ecstatic about this.






In this pic you can see the holes 3" back from where the carrier now sits, which were utilized in the Altezza.




Now this was by far the worst part of this whole process. 




But in the end, it came out decent.  It allowed me to get the extra 3/4" of clearance I needed in the trans tunnel for both the big shifter housing that the J160 utilizes, as well as the large circumference of this 6 speed trans.  It's tight, but it fits.  And it seems like the stock center console and dash pieces will still clear the taller trans tunnel.


This is how it now sits on its new engine mounts.


Before putting the engine in for the 9th (and final) time, I began addressing some areas of concern.




The strut tower on the driver side had a small crack, which was odd.  I end-drilled it to stop it from spreading and then welded it up.




I used this rust-converter solution on the material once I got it all cleaned up.  This stuff reacts black to any oxidation and apparently stops the chemical reaction.  Allegedly.  Next winter, when I started phase 2 of this project, I'll gut the entire bay and address these things with more detail, but this repair will definitely do the trick for the time being.

You're doing work. Those motor mounts and the trans tunnel came out great.

kelso840 on 08:28:37 AM / 15-Feb-20
You're doing work. Those motor mounts and the trans tunnel came out great.

...really nice work...keep it coming!

Just a few small updates while I wait for parts to be delivered...

I made the decision to convert the whole power steering system to AN fittings and hoses for simplicity, at least that's what I tell people.  I really do it because I enjoy good hose-end porn.  I'm still taking measurements to make sure this next hose-end order is my last.  In the process of searching for components, I stumbled across a a nice horizontal power steering reservoir from a retired circle track car for $30 shipped on eBay.  This was nice because it puts the -10 feed line up high, which is needed when the power steering pump is up high like it is on the 3SGE engine.  If you guys are ever looking for universal components, searching for used circle track parts on the internet can make for incredible deals for high quality parts.  This thing needs some serious cleaning and some work to mount it how I want, but I couldn't pass it up, both due to price and the story behind it.



We had a freak warm February weekend here the past couple days, with temperatures in the mid-high 50s.  I took advantage of this acceptable weather and pulled out the power washer to get the factory carpet nice and clean.  I've done this a few times over the years with carpets out of various cars, but I always forget just how disgusting it is watching the brown and black sludge water run out of the carpet.  Anyways, this thing is sitting and drying in the sun as we speak!  It's finally starting to feel more like the reassembly process and less like the disassembly process, which is doing wonders for my project anxiety  :laugh:



So I took a gamble and bought a power steering -10AN feed adapter made for a 1jz/2jz engine, based solely on the fact that it looked similar to the 3SGE part.  Turns out, it is, so this allowed me to convert to more AN hoses.  There really is no benefit or reason here, other than that it's the upmost hose on the engine, and I didn't want a big ugly rubber hose and clamp to be the first thing I saw every time i opened the hood.



Factory^^



Made by some guy in his garage out west^^

Its quite a nice part.  We'll see if it leaks, though its a low pressure feed system, so I'm pretty optimistic it will do the trick!





I told myself I would be doing more garage-cleaning last night.  But I ended up mocking up these OZs I keep telling myself I'll finish one of these days.  Seeing one put together really does invoke some motivation though..

Also, the driveshaft shipped this morning!  Pretty stoked about this.  I also sort of forgot that I haven't even looked into the cooling system components yet.  I'll have to source a radiator, hoses, overflow, and some heater hoses.  When people tell you that a swap will nickel-and-dime you to death, they weren't wrong.  Especially when it's cross-platform  :woow:

I made some progress, though nothing too dramatic over the last week, as I've hit a couple small road blocks.





Can't shout these guys out enough.  2 day turn around on a custom aluminum driveshaft from Toyota yoke, to Nissan tail flange.  All for $380, free shipping.  Great guys to deal with!







I was able to finally get the power steering system FINISHED.  As much as I love good hose-ends and a clean set up, finding all of the adapter fittings you need to go from a metric thread pattern to 6AN can get cumbersome.  And for anyone who hasn't worked with this stuff before, it's quite common to order a certain degree hose-end, thinking that it will point your hose in the right direction, and then find out your imagination is shit, only to have to reorder things all over again.  Thankfully this only happened to me once so far on this project.







Here's part 2 of my radiator saga...  First time around, I purchased a universal "Mopar" unit, advertising dimensions that would work in the bay.  It was also nice and narrow, leaving me room on either side for charge piping, if I decided to boost this engine down the road.  Well, they were 2" short on their "overall height" dimension.  I figured this was just a fluke error with their listing, so I returned it.  Fast forward a few weeks, and I decided to attempt a radiator purchase again.  This time, I went with a MK3 Supra radiator, as it put the radiator inlet/outlet in close proximity to the coolant inlet/outlet on the engine.  Here are the advertised dimensions for this Supra radiator:

Core Height:    14.75 in.
Core Thickness:    2.25 in.
Overall Dimensions:   26 x 18.25 in.

Now I'm staring at this thing, wondering what the hell happened.  The Nissan VG radiator that I took out measured 19" tall.  I know for a fact that I have to add holes to the tension rod brackets for the pegs on the bottom of the radiator to sit in, but that doesn't make up for this much height.  So I pulled out the tape measure to verify their measurements listed online.  Overall height: 20" on the dot.  How the hell do two completely different radiator manufacturers incorrectly list their dimensions.  And how the hell was I the idiot who had to deal with it, twice in a row?!

Anyways, I'll have to research that a bit further.  I want to get the engine out to finalize the drivetrain (clutch, flywheel, hoses, etc) but I really need to wait until I can get a proper radiator so I can get some coolant hoses on order.  I'm also waiting for my midpipe flange to arrive so I can start the tedious process of trying to snake a 2-into-1 downpipe/midpipe around a steering column. 



Now, the Altezza from the factory (and several other foreign and domestic Toyota vehicles) used a fusebox/ecubox that resides in the engine bay, and almost looks like an airbox.  Since I've made the decision to use AltezzaLink, which utilizes the factory ECU case and the factory harness, I've decided to take a stab at locating this Toyota electronics-box in the bay, in a way that appears as factory as possible.  Though this sounds easier said than done.  The biggest issue, is that I want it to appear clean and parallel to engine.  However, the factory frame rails in the S12 are not parallel at the front, instead they flair outwards.  So in an attempt to find a way to mock this up in the bay in a way that is appealing to the eye, I've started to build onto the Toyota box to mirror the shape and direction of the factory S12 frame rail.  In theory, this will make it easier to mount the box in the bay, and won't make the lack of symmetry between the shape of the box and the shape of the red frame rail jump out at you like a sore thumb.  As of right now, I'm just playing around with some plastic bonding.  I have a feeling this won't be my last attempt at this. 



Here is what I mean^^^



I scavenged some plastic from pieces I had to trim off the box to get it to clear the wheel well, as well as an old broken fan shroud from the VG engine.



Some trimming and glue-up



Still needs some trimming, but you can now visualize how the box will sit in reference to the frame rail directly beneath it.  I suck at taking pics during mock-up, because I simply don't have enough hands.  But I'll detail this in length once I have some more confidence in my plan  :thinking:

Love the work you are doing.  If you are looking for strange AN fittings in the future don't forget to search aviation parts suppliers.  Aircraft Spruce has an expansive selection.  The drawback is aviation pricing.  Makes drift tax seem like pocket change.

Update time! 





The 20v Blacktop ITB adapter from Xcessive Mfg, while expensive, does have some cool features.  The adapter has an NPT vacuum port for each of the 4 runners, allowing you to sync the throttle linkage adjustments, while also using the vacuum from all 4 cylinders to feed a vacuum block, which can be used for things such as the brake booster, fuel pressure regulator, and the integrated MAP sensor in my stand-alone ECU.



I picked up this very inexpensive vac block off eBay and made a quick bracket out of some .125" aluminum sheet from work.  It utilizes some threaded holes in the factory lower plenum, which keeps it tucked nicely out of the way while still be relatively accessible.  Also, you can see the larger hose existing the left side of the vac block, which feeds the brake booster.



The silicone hose to brake booster, still using the factory Nissan check valve.  It's ugly, but it works.  I'll probably update this later with something a bit more aesthetically pleasing.  Potentially more AN stuff.



I picked up a cheap (yet surprisingly nice) catch can to route the factory PCV system. 



I was able to cut up the factory rubber hoses, use a couple brass PEX barbed fittings, and add silicone hose to connect the whole system.  I'm relatively happy with how it turned out.  Once the trumpets are on the throttle bodies, it should be less intrusive looking.  I hope.



Radiator #3 turned out to be the winner!  This is an oversize full aluminum unit made for a NA Mazda Miata.  It's nice and short, which was the problem I had been battling with my previous two radiator attempts.  The nice thing is that it shares a 1.25" inlet and outlet with the BEAMS engine, which eliminated the need for reducers in the coolant system.





By utilizing the factory upper radiator mounting points, I made some quick little brackets, which I suck and didn't get pictures of once welded and painted, but I will!





I was able to use the crossmember I put in between the tension rod brackets (initially to mount a skid plate) to attach a lower radiator mount.  It ended up being places perfectly for this, and its solid as a rock now.



I scored a Honda Accord coolant overflow from the junkyard a month or so ago, and took the sheet metal bracket with me to build my own for the S12









I had to get a little creative with the rad plumbing, though it wasn't too bad.  I still have to flare the pipe ends.  I just haven't gotten to it yet.







Then came the part I was dreading, which I took virtually no pictures of.  Mainly because of how filthy I was during this whole process. 





The downpipe proved to be relatively difficult, as one of the pipes would have to make a weird turn to make it around the steering shaft.







That's the completed midpipe before paint.  No pictures of the tailpipe section or the finished downpipe.  All three sections are now coated in a black high-temp header paint.  I'll grab some pictures before reinstalling.



And then it was time to pull the engine again.  I wanted everything completely mocked up before doing so.  The engine had no flywheel/clutch in it, and was missing a bunch of components.  It has basically been used just for mock-up over the last month or so.  I installed a new rear main seal, flywheel, clutch, starter, wiring harness, etc.  However, I did run into one hiccup.  The clutch kit that I purchased ended up coming with the incorrect throw out bearing, or "clutch release bearing" as Toyota calls it.  Battle Garage lists them, however they are currently out of stock, waiting for an incoming shipment.  This is a real kick in the balls, because I just KNOW this is going to be that damn part that holds me up for another month.  I put the whole driveline back together with the old worn throw out bearing.  Worst case, I can get it running and tuned with the old one, as it hasn't completely failed, it's just seen better days.



And two last pics before I started pulling the engine.  I put the car on the ground to move some things around.  I set the car down on ramps so that I could get my jack out from underneath, and put the car into gear before doing so, so it wouldn't go anywhere.  Well stupid me forgot that being in gear doesn't mean shit if there isn't a clutch or flywheel involved.  So the car ran out of the garage and down the driveway and scared the shit out of me.  Thankfully, no one was parked behind it.  But it gave me an opportunity to take a couple decent pics out in the sunlight.  It's starting to look like a functioning engine bay!





The 'Rona has given me some extra time at home, so I hope to have this thing up and running in a couple weeks, assuming I can get my hands on a wideband... 

So a lot has happened!  And I'm a bit embarrassed with my lack of pictures, but I will make up for it once the car is completely reassembled.  The car runs!  There was a few wiring gremlins I had to chase, specifically in the factory Toyota harness.  Once that was all sorted, it fired right up on the base map from Mark at Panicwire, and even held its own idle without any sort of IACV.  I took it for a drive, which was a bit frightening, because it was very touchy on the throttle, very loud, had a 3500 RPM rev limiter, and the lightweight flywheel with a lack of a good tune made the car want to stall every time you depressed the clutch from any RPM over idle.  But I was determined to put a fresh tank of gas in the car, and wanted it to do so under its own power.



Next up was dyno tuning.  Turbo Mike came highly recommended for a local guy within the drift community with a great reputation and solid experience with both BEAMS motors, and LinkEcu.  Two hours into the dyno session and this thing made 200whp and 135wtq at 8,200 rpm on a Mustang Dyno.  According to the tuner, unopened BEAMS motors generally put down 180-185whp on his dyno, so we were both very surprised with how healthy this engine seems to be.





Once the car was running nice, I decided to "temporarily address" some minor rust issues, with plans of painting the car sometime next year.  We'll fast forward 3 weeks and the car has been completely repainted.  This was not part of the initial plan, but given I'm not currently working, I had the time to put into it.













Here is some of the aforementioned "minor rust" I intended to "temporarily address"...





I ended up having to remake a portion of the inner fender, as well as about 1/3 of the actual wheel arch from scratch. 







It was at this point I realized I didn't have a choice but to respray it now.



Unfortunately, as most of you know, finding good body panels is not easy, so I had to make do with what I had.  These specific fenders were repops, probably from sometime in the 90s, and their fitment was garbage.  I probably had 12 hours into this one specifically, but I told myself if I find good OEM fenders down the road, I can always spray them and swap them out.



This car had had at least one full respray, and some panels actually had 3 coats of red on them.  The last coat suffering from terrible cracking, so many of the panels had to be stripped bare.  This proved to be very cumbersome.





Lots of bad body work to repair





The windsheild had to be pulled to repair some rust under the seal.  Thankfully, this is the first time I've addressed a rusty window frame where it did NOT penetrate the factory weld seam.  That made this surprisingly easy, though still time consuming.



Stripped and converted













And here's the after of the quarter panel repair.  Given I have very little experience with body work, I was pretty happy with the outcome.

I'm spraying the bumpers and some other small parts today, so hopefully it'll be completely reassembled by the end of the week!

I'm completely jealous of the work you've done because I totally lack the skills necessary for body work and rust repair. My hat goes off to you.

You should move up to the Great White North close to me so I can send my cars over to you to do all the rust repairs and respray.